[Luke]

I just got these 4 cards back from SGC. All of them received a grade of "FAIR". Obviously an argument can be made that any (or all) of them are incorrectly graded, but for the sake of discussion, let's say that they are all accurately graded.

If all of these cards can receive the same grade, to me that means that we need to widen the grading scale at the bottom end. It has always seemed odd to me that we ascribe a grade of "POOR" to such a wide variety of cards. Some 1s are quite pleasing to the eye, while others can be beat to hell. These scans show that at a grade level of 1.5, the same problem exists. I think you see the same type of variation with grades up to around a 3 or 4.

I don't really have a solution to present. We're very used to the current scale, and it would be tough to change it now. I also realize that as long as people buy the card rather than the holder, this isn't really a big deal. With that said, it just seems that there is a ton of room for improvement with the current grading scale. There is a fine line between a 5 and a 6, but at the bottom end, there can be massive discrepencies between the physical condition of two cards in the same numerical holder.